{"id":102688,"date":"2017-11-16T19:46:27","date_gmt":"2017-11-17T02:46:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/purgatory-resort-to-open-saturday-despite-warm-weather\/"},"modified":"2017-11-16T19:46:27","modified_gmt":"2017-11-17T02:46:27","slug":"purgatory-resort-to-open-saturday-despite-warm-weather","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/purgatory-resort-to-open-saturday-despite-warm-weather\/","title":{"rendered":"Purgatory Resort to open Saturday despite warm weather"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"With
With the help of robust snowmaking operations, Purgatory Resort will open its 52nd season Saturday. From 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Lifts 1 and 2 will provide access to the Westfork and El Diablo trails, and mountain biking will be an option, too, weather permitting.<\/span>Courtesy of Purgatory Resort<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Warm weather is no deterrent for Purgatory Resort\u2019s opening day Saturday, when the ski area will celebrate the beginning of its 52nd season.<\/p>\n

Resort spokeswoman Kim Oyler said Purgatory nearly doubled its snowmaking capacity on the front side of the mountain with access to electricity and additional energy-efficient snow guns and fans.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur snowmaking crew has taken advantage of what cold temperatures we\u2019ve had,\u201d she said. \u201cThey have had some great production, and later this week it is supposed to be cold.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is the third consecutive year Purgatory will open on the weekend before Thanksgiving.<\/p>\n

The resort will open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday with Lifts 1 and 2 providing access to the Westfork and El Diablo trails.<\/p>\n

Skiers and snowboarders will upload and download on Lift 1 and will have access to 683 vertical feet of skiable terrain under Lift 2.<\/p>\n

Similar to last year, Purgatory will celebrate the start of the winter season with skiing and mountain biking, weather permitting.<\/p>\n

Lift 4 will provide lift-served mountain biking from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday with access to the Divinity Flow and Diggler trails and portions of the World\u2019s Course.<\/p>\n

Conditions permitting, the mountain bike chairlift may open again Nov. 24-26 for the holiday weekend.<\/p>\n

Opening-day festivities include live music from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. by Paul Christian at the Powderhouse, with grilling on the restaurant\u2019s deck and music from local bluegrass band The Outskirts from noon to 3 p.m. at Purgy\u2019s.<\/p>\n

Oyler said more terrain and lifts will open when conditions permit.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will be opening more and more terrain when we can take advantage of what Mother Nature provides,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Saturday\u2019s forecast is expected to be sunny with highs in the mid 40s.<\/p>\n

Wolf Creek Ski Area opened for weekend skiing and snowboarding Nov. 11.<\/p>\n

Nova Lift, Wolf Creek\u2019s beginner double chairlift, will operate from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekends.<\/p>\n

Treasure and Bonanza lifts will also operate on weekends with access to some of the main trails, including Tranquility, Treasure and Powder Puff Valley.<\/p>\n

Telluride Ski Resort announced it will delay its opening until Dec. 2 because of unseasonably warm temperatures and a dry weather pattern across the region.<\/p>\n

The resort\u2019s snowmaking team has worked to make snow, primarily above 11,000 feet.<\/p>\n

As temperatures drop, snowmaking efforts will increase at lower elevations.<\/p>\n

mrupani@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\n

If you go<\/h4>\n

In celebration of Purgatory Resort\u2019s opening day, discounted lift tickets will be available for purchase at the ticket window.
\n The tickets, which allow access to skiing and mountain biking, are $49 for adults, $39 for teens, $29 for kids and $39 for seniors.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

52nd year to kick off with celebration, including live music<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":102689,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6314,6313],"tags":[378,21,13,3965,712],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-102688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports-2-outdoors","category-sports-2","tag-alpine-skiing","tag-cortez","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-nordic-skiing-group","tag-purgatory"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102688","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102688"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102688\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102688"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=102688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}